Neanderthals are the New (old?) Humans

Many years ago, I wrote about an NPR article talking about a study showing that Neanderthals wore jewelry. Lately we’ve been discovering more and more evidence showing how their lives were more complex (and closer to humans) than we ever thought. Recently my husband showed me this journal article about another Neanderthal jewelry find.

This article shows some eagle talons that were specifically altered in a way suggesting they were made into a necklace. This find was of particular interest because of the quantity of talons found. They came from a site in modern day Croatia. It’s interesting to think what our evolutionary cousins were doing back then and what sort of culture they might have had. To me it’s looking less and less distinct from our own.